The idea of heating a space with the sun is very attractive and elegant, though not trivial to implement cost effectively in Northern coastal climates. The challenge is that both daily and seasonally, the load and source don’t coincide. When we need space heat,...

This extended care hospital facility uses a significant amount of hot water and was due for a new hot water system to replace the failing one. The solar hot water preheat system will provide nearly 50% of the load annually to the building. A drainback, preheat...

In British Columbia, nothing says local energy like a combined biomass gasification and solar thermal system to supply space heat and domestic hot water. During the low solar gain, high heat requirement months, the biomass system provides the vast majority of the...

Clean & Green Something I hear from time to time is that solar is “ugly”. It doesn’t have to be. By paying attention to detail and planning the installation to be as unobtrusive as possible, it can not only work well for decades and displace...